In a startling revelation, a Daily News investigation has uncovered that hundreds of thousands of work orders for New York City buses, flagged for either inspection or repairs, show no recorded labor hours from MTA maintenance teams. This finding suggests that buses may be hitting the bustling streets of New York City without undergoing necessary repairs or inspections.
Though there are valid circumstances under which a bus work order might be closed without any work being performed, insiders from New York City Transit’s bus division have revealed that there is often pressure to maintain a sufficient number of buses on the streets to adhere to schedules. This pressure sometimes leads to the deferment of essential repairs.
The flagged work orders cover a spectrum of issues, ranging from routine inspections and minor problems like burnt-out lights to more severe concerns such as engine fault codes and brake system malfunctions.
The absence of recorded hours on these work orders leaves a murky picture of how many buses might be operating with outstanding service needs. In a notably alarming case earlier this month, a Staten Island commuter bus experienced a steering failure—a full nine months after a steering system issue had been reported.
The bus in question, a Prevost X3-45 model, was operating on the SIM 5 route, which runs between Staten Island and Manhattan. On the morning of November 7, the bus driver reported a loss of steering control while en route to pick up passengers at the Eltingville Transit Center in Great Kills, according to records obtained by The News.
Fortunately, no passengers were onboard at the time, as the bus was returning from a trip to Manhattan without passengers, a process known as deadheading. The driver managed to safely bring the bus to a halt near the intersection of Richmond Ave. and Arthur Kill Rd., just across from the Eltingville Transit Center, averting a potential accident.
Within an hour, the wounded bus was towed back home to the Yukon Depot for repairs, where a source said mechanics discovered a broken steering column.
In February, the same bus, No. 2521, had been found to have an error code associated with its steering-angle sensor — a component tied to the vehicle’s steering and anti-lock brake systems, records reviews by the News show. The work-order triggered by that discovery, reviewed by The News, shows that the bus was not pulled from service — and the document lists no labor hours associated with MTA work crews addressing the problem.
A source familiar with the incident confirmed to The News that bus No. 2521 was put back in service without repairs in February. Nine months later, its steering gave out.
It’s not clear if the issue with the sensor, which detects the position of the bus’ steering wheel, was related to bus No. 2521’s loss of steering nine months later. But a former MTA bus mechanic told The News that it was plausible the sensor could throw an error code if the vehicle’s steering system had been damaged, and that any bus with that issue should probably be repaired and inspected before getting back on the road.
Shutterstock
Passengers board an MTA bus. (Shutterstock)
The MTA did not respond when asked about the repair history of Bus No. 2521 — but a spokesman told The News that the bus remained out of service as of Friday, pending an ongoing investigation.
Ticking time bombs
The Staten Island steering failure was a potential ticking time bomb waiting to happen, sources say, an example of what some sources described as a pattern across the New York City Transit bus system reflected in the prevalence of work orders that show no hours actually worked.
Here is how the system works: When a bus is due for regularly scheduled maintenance or inspections, or when a mechanic or a bus driver reports a problem with the vehicle, a work-order is generated.
The work orders typically show a bus’ identifying information, along with the reason the order was triggered. Examples can range from a check-engine light, an unusual noise, or the replacement of a specific part.
The work order also lists how many hours of labor the task is expected to take, how many it actually took, and what the cost of that labor was to the MTA.
On the February work order for bus No. 2521 — and other work-orders reviewed by The News — the labor-hours section reads, “0:00.”
Multiple insider sources told The News that work orders without labor hours attached to them have become a common occurrence in the bus system.
A screenshot of the MTA’s maintenance tracking program, taken earlier this month and shared with The News, shows roughly 438,000 jobs in the past 12 months were marked completed despite having no labor hours. Of those, roughly 177,000 were “corrective” — in other words, meant to fix a problem discovered on a bus — not scheduled maintenance.
At the same time, there are valid reasons for a work-order to be closed without any labor hours attached, a source with knowledge of the MTA’s bus-maintenance practices told the Daily News.
When the MTA sends a mechanic or a tow truck to a bus that breaks down while in service — a situation known as a “road call” in bus-speak — the call generates a work-order, but any repairs may be listed on a separate work-order generated at the depot.
Similarly, an issue flagged by a mechanic at the depot but ultimately deemed road-worthy by a supervisor may also not get labor hours assigned.
But that discretion has the potential to be abused, with sources telling The News they’ve seen pressure put on supervisors to “greenline” — declare fit for service — buses with issues that might need to be addressed.
It is unclear how many of the work-orders closed without labor because the work was reflected elsewhere. But multiple sources throughout the bus network described to The News a preference among transit honchos for “making service” — getting buses on the street — that has opened the door to maintenance shortcuts.
MTA: Buses are safe
MTA leadership insists that the buses are safe.
Demetrius Crichlow, president of New York City Transit, pushed back on any suggestion otherwise Friday, telling The News in a statement that any bus with a safety-critical issue is kept off the road until the problem is resolved.
“No bus enters service with a known safety issue. Period,” Crichlow said. “Two things are non-negotiable: safety and service.
“That is why we have strengthened maintenance practices and documentation standards—and continue to refine them—to ensure delivery of safe, reliable bus service every day,” he said.
An MTA spokesman confirmed Friday that all bus depots are required to log labor on work-orders, and emphasized that any “administrative exemptions” that allow a work-order without labor hours do not pertain to safety-critical issues.
But in conversations with multiple current and retired bus-maintenance employees described buses being greenlined despite worn brake pads, missing wheel-torque indicators, or error lights on the dashboard. One bus driver said they didn’t feel unsafe, but told The News that check-engine lights — which can indicate anything from non-critical maintenance needs to pending mechanical failures —are so common that drivers are now greeted with an onboard message assuring them the bus is still safe to operate.
Internal probe
The prevalence of work orders with no hours of work on them had at one point sparked apparent concern within the MTA.
Documents obtained by the Daily News show that higher-ups within the MTA’s bus division have been looking into the potential that work orders have been improperly closed. An email exchange obtained by The News shows that Danny Cardoza, the agency’s top maintenance official, had tasked a subordinate with looking into the issue in December of 2021.
“Take a look at what I have so far and let me know if this will suffice,” reads a December 20, 2021 email sent to Cardoza.
An attached spreadsheet reports more than 500,000 work-orders in the MTA system had been “closed” — resolved — despite having no labor hours attached.
The document goes on to identify the bus depots which, at that time, had the largest number of closed work-orders without labor hours — Yukon on Staten Island, Gun Hill in the Bronx, JFK, LaGuardia and College Point in Queens — as well as identify the five supervisors who had signed off on closing the greatest number of them.
The MTA did not respond when asked why that information was collected and what transit brass did with it.
Fourteen months later, in February of 2023, Cardoza emailed his subordinate again, this time with a long list of work-orders generated at the Charleston Depot on Staten Island.
“Let’s sort through this and look for some work-orders we should print that are out of the norm,” Cardoza wrote.
It was not immediately clear whether any “out of the norm” work orders were found during that review, or why the bus boss focused on the Charleston Depot — questions to which the MTA did not respond.
Cardoza did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
